As you probably already know, SQL Server 2016 brings the support for the R language, and SQL Server 2017 adds support for the Python language. Of course, you need to have a development tool for the R code. There is a free version of the IDE tool called RStudio IDE that has been on the market for quite a long time. This is probably the most popular R tool. In addition, Microsoft is developing R Tools for Visual Studio (RTVS), a plug-in for Visual Studio, which enables you to also develop R code in an IDE that is common and well known among developers that use Microsoft products and languages.

In this section, you will learn about:

• RStudio IDE
• R Tools for Visual Studio
• Using Visual Studio for data science applications